[AFRICANEWS] Storm clouds are finally gathering over Hwange National Park, but it's too late for more than a hundred elephants who have succumbed to a prolonged drought at the start of the austral summer.
Simba Marozva and other rangers in the Zim-bob-wean reserve now only have to cut the tusks off the decomposing corpses to prevent poachers from finding them.
The 14,600 km2 park is home to more than 45,000 savannah elephants, so numerous that they are considered a threat to the environment.
The scene is heartbreaking: blackened corpses mark a landscape where the rains are more than six weeks late and temperatures regularly reach 40 degrees.
Some have fallen into dried-up potholes, others have spent their last hours in the shade of a tree. Many are baby elephants: all that remains is their shriveled skin over their bones, giving off a tenacious odour.
The intact tusk is a sign of natural death. In recent weeks, Simba Marozva and his colleagues have been on daily patrol in search of the corpses.
On average, an elephant drinks over 200 litres of water and eats 140 kilos of food a day.
More than 200 pachyderms had died from the drought by 2019. Rangers believe that the current situation is even more critical.
The quest for water is putting the elephants at risk, as they come dangerously close to inhabited areas on the outskirts of the park. Thirsty, they draw from the pools of houses or hotels or drink from water points contaminated by animal corpses.